It was a long road back, but a quest that was imperiled by an early season loss ended in triumph last Saturday when Fremont captured the team title at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League wrestling tournament, and with it the league’s overall championship.

The Firebirds, who lost a 39-38 decision to 2014 league champ Monta Vista in their second SCVAL match of the 2015 campaign, went undefeated the rest of the way to finish in a three-way tie for first place in the De Anza Division along with the Matadors and Wilcox, setting up a winner-take-all scenario at the league finals.

Buoyed by four individual champions, Fremont piled up 260 team points to edge past both Wilcox, which finished second with 243.5 points, and Monta Vista, which came in third with 226.5. Rounding out the team standings were, in order, Los Gatos (132), Gunn (107.5), Cupertino and Palo Alto (93), Lynbrook (79.5), Los Altos (71), Homestead (57), Santa Clara (52), Saratoga (42) and Milpitas (40).

A dominating performance by Angelo Reyes at 106 pounds and an upset at 195 by Jisiah Ybarra keyed Fremont’s championship performance.

Reyes, currently ranked third among all Central Coast Section wrestlers, accounted for 30 points himself by pinning all of his opponents en route to the 106 pound title, including Monta Vista’s Jacob Borenstein in the finals.

Ybarra, a senior in his first year of wrestling, claimed the 195-pound title by upsetting top-seeded Isaiah Castaneda of Wilcox by way of a pin at 4:42 of their match.

Also capturing individual crowns for the Firebirds were Dominic Huerta, who repeated as league champ at 160 pounds, and Ezra Clark, who triumphed at 132. Huerta defeated Wilcox’s Bryce Grizzle with a fall at 3:33 of their match. Clark, meanwhile, nailed a 10-4 decision win over Homestead’s Arjun Gill.

In addition to the four individual champions, Fremont also garnered a quartet of seconds, one third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh.

In addition to Kolesov’s title at 145 and the second by Bornstein at 106, the third-place Matadors received three other runner-up performances. Max McCann, the Section’s second-ranked 138-pounder, was edged by top-ranked Ian Cramer of Gunn, 9-7. At 152 pounds, Steven Grizzle of Wilcox pinned the Mats’ Austin Wu in 3:02. And it was Joey Wood of Los Gatos winning a major decision, 13-4, over Adam Rizk at 220.

Monta Vista also garnered thirds by Owen Malone at 120 and James Migdal at 182, fourths by Leon Rovner at 160 and Jeff Ellis at 195, fifths by Kishora Adimulam at 113 and Kenji Kadokura at 170 and sixths by Hadi Hamwi at 132 and Shayan Eslamian at 285.

Cupertino’s strong sixth-place showing was led by third-place finishes from Miguel Reyes (132) and Justin Marks (152), a fourth by David Li (285), fifths from Akhil Vega (106) and Newad Habtum (160) and sevenths from Christophe Peters (126) and Matt Kelly (182).

Gavin Dersh-Fisher was the top performer for Lynbrook, taking a second at 182 after losing a heartbreaking 2-0 decision to Saratoga’s Christian Murabito. The Vikes also earned a third from Devyn Ito at 220, fifths from Matthew Blackburn at 145 and Logan Stormo at 195, a seventh from Lucas Hong at 113 and an eighth from Hayden Ito at 120.

Homestead picked up a fourth from Zechariah Asselin at 170, a sixth from Dylan Robinson at 195 and eighths from Joey Coogan at 113, Raven Bautista at 126 and Bryce Flickner at 152.

Jonathan Liu captured a sixth for The King’s Academy at 113 pounds.

Prior to the league finals, Fremont concluded the dual meet season on a strong note by crushing Los Gatos 54-17 behind pins by Reyes at 106, Aceves at 126, Ez. Clark at 132, Tran at 138, Feliciano-Takafua at 152, Huerta at 160 and Ybarra at 195.

Chipping in with decisions were El. Clark at 120 and Reyes at 145.

The Firebirds ended the dual meet season with a 5-1 record, tied with Wilcox and Monta Vista for first place in the De Anza Division.

Lynbrook concluded its El Camino Division dual meet season with a 61-15 thumping of Saratoga.